IRC (Internet Relay Chat) provides a chatroom environment for real-time discussions with other UESP editors. Our chatroom is set up at #UESPWiki on irc.chatspike.net. To quickly join the channel in your browser (without installing any software), you can use our web chat. A page showing the statistics for the channel may also be found here.

If you try connecting via our web chat and see a message saying that you're banned, don't panic! If you haven't done anything in the chatroom to warrant a ban, it's very likely that the web chat was banned for a short minute to sort out another user. Try connecting again a few minutes later or through another method.

Before You Join

First, please take some time to search the wiki for the answer to your question. Questions asking for general help on a quest are likely to be directed straight to the site and will simply annoy the people in the room.

Secondly, when you ask a question please be patient. People in the room do not spend 100% of their time waiting for questions and may not notice that you have asked one for a while. Conversations like this these two aren't going to get you anywhere.

How to Join

Getting an IRC Client

An IRC client is similar to your web browser; if you use our java client, then your web browser will actually be your IRC client. Your IRC client allows you to join any of the hundreds of available IRC networks. Each network hosts hundreds, if not thousands, of channels (also known as chatrooms). Each channel is devoted to a different topic. You can simultaneously join as many channels as you like.

Recommended clients for newcomers:

WebChat is our built-in chat client. It's very user-friendly and there is a link to it at the top of every wiki article.

Our java client automatically takes you to #UESPWiki. The java client does not require you to download any software, but is not as simple as the WebChat.

IceChat is one of several IRC clients that can be downloaded and installed on your computer. While it's not as powerful as mIRC, some users find that IceChat is easier to use.

Many other IRC clients are also available, any of which can be used to access #UESPWiki. For more details on the IRC clients, see Wikipedia's comparison of IRC clients.

Connecting to the Channel

Unless you use the java client or Webchat, your client will need to know a little information about how to get to the channel. The following is the information that you will need to connect to the channel and a brief description of what the information is used for.

Server, Network, Address, et cetera

irc.chatspike.net

The network that hosts the channel.

Port

6667

The default port for IRC is 6667. If you have problems with port 6667 an alternate port recognized by Chatspike is 7000.

Username

If you're asked for this, just use the same name as your nickname. The username doesn't have a major role in chatrooms, but it will be seen as part of your "host address" by other people.

Nickname

Using your UESPwiki editor name will allow everyone else to recognize you, but you can choose any nickname you want. This nickname will appear next to anything that you say in the channel.

Most IRC clients will allow you to set or change your nickname by typing the following command in the console area:

/nick yourNicknameHere

Once your client has all of this information, you'll be able to connect to the server. Push the connect button on your client, or if your client doesn't have one or if you can't find it, type this into the console window:

/server irc.chatspike.net 6667

If for some reason your Nickname is unavailable (perhaps another user has taken it, since ChatSpike hosts more interest groups than UESP alone), you might need to specify another one during the connection process. Most programs will allow you to set (or change) your nickname at any time by typing in the console area:

/nick yourNicknameHere

After you successfully connect, you will see a fair bit of information about the Chatspike network appear on your screen, known as the "MOTD". If you see that, then you have just connected to the ChatSpike network. To join #uespwiki, you just need to type this into the console window:

/join #uespwiki

...and you'll be in the channel!

SSL

Chatspike's SSL port is 6697. It uses a self-generated SSL certificate, so if you want to use SSL for your connection then you have to enable support for invalid certificates. Don't try to set up an SSL connection unless you are used to IRC and know what you are doing.

Talking

To say something in the channel, just type something in and hit enter.

There are hundreds of available commands, but only a handful are commonly needed:

/nick [name] – Use this if you want to change your nickname once you've connected. If you use the java client, you'll want to use this once you join so you don't have the default "UESPUser" name.

/me [say something here] – Lets you talk in third person. For example, typing in "/me goes shopping." would result in "User goes shopping."

/join #[channel name] – This puts you in another channel. There's a list of Elder Scrolls related channels at the bottom of the page.

/leave #[channel name] [reason (optional)] – Leave a channel that you joined. You can also provide a reason why you left if you'd like. You will still stay connected to chatspike and any other channels on chatspike.

One more thing: Don't forget to remove the brackets (the "[" and "]") when you're typing in the commands. They're just used in the list above so you know not to type in what's between them verbatim.

Peregrine

If the bot Peregrine is in the channel, several commands can be used to link easily to wiki pages from the chatroom. All of the wiki-related commands are listed here, and unrelated commands are listed here.

Channel Guidelines

The basic intent of the chatroom is to allow amicable, informal discussions about UESPWiki and the UESP site in general:

UESP content: The primary purpose of the channel is to allow discussions about UESP

Issues where there are major disagreements are better discussed on the wiki (see IRC and UESP). If any participant in a discussion feels uncomfortable with the tone, he/she should suggest that the discussion be moved to the wiki.

Rules listed on this page are meant as behavioural guidelines, not as bludgeons. Very minor infractions can be overlooked at the discretion of those present. More problematic infractions should get verbal warnings first, followed by kicking or banning only if prior warnings are ignored.

The channel operators have authority to enforce these guidelines as they see fit, in particular in cases where one channel user is disrupting other users of the channel.

Some other guidelines that apply to all discussions on #UESPWiki are:

Please keep discussions PG-13-rated at most. This means minimal swearing, no explicit sexual content, and no other clearly mature topics.

The channel does not support law breaking of any kind. Such behavior will be reported to the network staff, and most likely to your internet service provider.

All bots and automated scripts must be approved by an operator before going live. In particular, an operator must know exactly what the bot or script is intended to do.

Upon entering the channel, glance over the topic to see if there are any relevant notices.

Non-English conversations are not permitted as they are considered disruptive. A couple of lines in a foreign language are fine, but any more than that should be taken elsewhere, whether or not the conversations are related to The Elder Scrolls. If you would like to read about or discuss The Elder Scrolls in other languages, please check out the websites listed here.

Modifying IRC Guidelines

These guidelines are subject to community consensus, just the same as any other policy on UESP. If any member of the community believes that modifications to the guidelines (other than typos and grammar) are needed, the changes should be proposed on the IRC talk page. If a community reaches a consensus in favor of the change, then it will be implemented into the main article.

IRC and UESP

IRC is a useful tool for real-time discussions with other UESP editors. Often questions can be answered more quickly in IRC than by posting them on the wiki. However, IRC also has limitations that need to be taken into account. Any time you need to be sure that information is correct (such as a fact about the game, or being sure of someone else's opinion), it is better to use the wiki than IRC. In real life chatting with someone over lunch is quick and convenient, but still verbal agreements can not replace written agreements. Similarly, the wiki rather than IRC should be used for anything that needs to be "in writing".

Some of the reasons why IRC is not an appropriate forum for formal discussions, such as making decisions or establishing consensus, are:

The entire UESPWiki community needs to be able to contribute to any such discussions.

Formal discussions need to be recorded for future reference.

Contributors need to be free to take their time to read what others have said, reach an opinion, write their comments, and review those comments before contributing.

For example, if you have an idea, IRC is a useful place to get preliminary feedback from other editors. Other editors might provide suggestions about how to improve the idea, or be able to point to other similar examples. Based on the discussion, you might choose to substantially revise your initial idea, or maybe everyone liked the idea as is, and now you feel more confident about proceeding.

However, even if everyone in IRC approved of your idea, that does not mean that you have the UESP community's consensus. The guidelines on the consensus article should still be used to determine whether or not the idea needs to be discussed on the wiki. When you summarize the idea on the wiki, you should only present your own opinions; do not try to speak for anyone else who was involved in the IRC discussion. Anyone else is then free to contribute to the wiki discussion with their opinion, including any editors who were involved in IRC. And it is very possible that other editors may state something very different than what they stated in IRC (i.e., they misunderstood your proposal initially, or made a typo in their response, or even just changed their mind after thinking about it some more). Only opinions posted to the wiki discussion should be taken into account.

These considerations also apply to IRC policy. This wiki article and its talk page are where IRC policy is established, not the IRC channel.

Channel Operators

The channel operators are trusted members of the community who therefore have special status in the channel. In the IRC channel, they have symbols next to their names (~, &, @, and %) so that they can easily be identified as people who are knowledgeable about the wiki. They also have some special privileges in case it is necessary to enforce the channel's guidelines.

By default, wiki administrators and patrollers who register with IRC are automatically given operator and half-operator privileges, respectively. The wiki nomination processes have already established that these editors are trusted by the community. That said, a person who is an operator or half-operator on the IRC channel doesn't automatically have any wiki privileges. The channel operators are: